马斯喀特苏丹国

Muscat and Oman (Arabic: مسقط و عُمان), officially known as the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman (Arabic: سلطنة مسقط وعُمان, romanized: Salṭanat Masqaṭ wa-‘Umān), also known briefly as the State of Muscat and Oman (Arabic: دولة مسقط وعُمان, romanized: Dawlat Masqaṭ wa-‘Umān) during the rule of Taimur bin Faisal, was a state that was under de facto British protection which existed in the second half of the 19th century and 20th century. It encompassed the present-day Sultanate of Oman and parts of present-day United Arab Emirates and Pakistan.

In 1856, upon the death of the last ruler of the Omani Empire, Said bin Sultan, the empire split into two separate political entities: the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman and the Sultanate of Zanzibar. The former continued to be led by the Al Busaid dynasty, but transitioned into a new form of government after the palace coup of 23 July 1970 in which the sultan Said bin Taimur was overthrown by the British and his son, Qaboos bin Said, who established the modern-day Sultanate of Oman.

Name

In medieval and early modern times, the area of southeastern Arabia was divided into 4 regions: Oman, Muscat, Dhofar, and the Pirate Coast.

Strictly speaking, Oman (Imamate of Oman, Arabic: عُمان الوسطى, ʿUmān al-Wusṭā) is the inner, continental part of the region without access to the coast and with the capital in the cities of Nizwa and Rustaq. Muscat is the coastal region looking onto the Gulf of Oman. Its rulers often carried out expansion, including overseas. Historical Muscat and Oman are separated by the Green Mountain plateau (Al Jabal Al Akhdar (Arabic: الجبل الأخضر)).

Background

Although there was a Portuguese presence in the region, the Yaruba imams expelled them in the 17th century. The imams later expanded their own maritime empire to the Persian Gulf and Zanzibar, expelling the Portuguese from the wider region, before falling to the Persians. Persian hegemony in Muscat and Oman was ended in 1749 by a defeat at the hands of the elected Imam Ahmad bin Said. The British Empire was keen to dominate southeast Arabia to curb the influence of other European powers and to weaken the Omani Empire in the 18th century. The British empire thus backed the Albusaidi Sultans of Muscat that came to power in the second half of the 18th century.……

Consolidation and decline

In the early 1820s, the Sultanate lost most of its territories in the Persian Gulf, which became the Trucial States under British protection. The fifth Sultan of the Al Said dynasty, Said bin Sultan, consolidated the Sultanate's territorial holdings and economic interests and Oman prospered. However, the Omani fleet was unable to compete with the more technically advanced European fleets and the Sultanate lost much of the trade with South Asia. Pressure by the British to abandon the slave trade further led to the loss of political and economic clout of the Sultanate.

On 4 June 1856, Said bin Sultan died without appointing an heir to the throne and members of the Al Said dynasty could not agree on a ruler.……

Insurgency and oil drilling

The discovery of oil in the Persian Gulf exacerbated the dispute between the Sultan in Muscat and the Imams of Oman. Oil exploration had begun in the early 1920s by the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. The course of World War II severely disrupted such activities. Further, the Sultanate of Muscat during that time was experiencing terrible social, economic and political conditions. The Sultanate was underdeveloped with no infrastructure or telephones, and Sultan Said bin Taimur prohibited anything that he considered "decadent", including radios.……